


A Cracked Window

by IJM



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 11:02:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21897049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IJM/pseuds/IJM
Summary: A conversation immediately after Elizabeth told Franco that Drew and Kim had sex.
Relationships: Franco Baldwin/Elizabeth Baldwin
Comments: 3
Kudos: 20





	A Cracked Window

**Author's Note:**

> Not for profit.  
For entertainment purposes only.  
No claim of ownership of characters.
> 
> Just a quick idea that I rattled off. I hope you enjoy it.

Franco Baldwin needed a couple of minutes for the words his wife had just spoken to find their way to a place where he could understand them. She said _he_, but the he in question was _him_.

“He had sex with Kim?” Franco repeated for clarity. “I cheated on you?” He was stunned. With all his faults and his lifetime of mistakes, he had never been a cheater. He had never been married either. Yet, less than six months into his marriage, he had committed adultery. “I,” he stuttered. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I hurt you like that.” Elizabeth and her boys were the people Franco had vowed to protect from ever being hurt again. Elizabeth had been devastated by the men in her life over and over and now he was just another one of those men who did not deserve her.

He stood and walked away from the couch, unable to bear the raw pain he saw in his wife’s eyes. He went to the window and looked outside. The ground and trees were covered in snow that reflected the sun, making everything that the light touched look pristine… undisturbed…

He took a deep breath and the air was slightly cool, next to the glass. The storm window had been cracked at some point while he was Drew and it needed to be replaced to insulate the room sufficiently.

The crack in the glass also glinted in the sunlight. It seemed symbolic to him—a crack in the once solid marriage he had. A fractured patterned branched out from the initial impact. It had been broken while he wasn’t there. He hadn’t been able to stop it. But it would probably be easier to repair than Elizabeth’s heart.

He bristled when Elizabeth wrapped her arms around him. “_You_ didn’t cheat on me,” Elizabeth assured him. “Drew and Kim used you.”

“Does that make it hurt less?” He faced her. He could find the truth in her eyes. He put his palm to her cheek and brushed a tear away with his thumb. “I’m so sorry that you have been through so much hurt and betrayal and… and… I don’t even know what else because I literally don’t remember anything. I was happy being back with you. I never imagined that a few months could leave so much damage to our family.”

“Our _family_ isn’t damaged,” Elizabeth said. She took his hand and pulled him back to the couch to get away from the slight draft coming from the window. “Our family is stronger than ever now that you’re back with us.”

“Can you elaborate?” He was afraid to make any incorrect conclusions given the bomb that had just gone off in their living room.

“Scott—your dad has been my rock. When Drew’s personality was in control, Scott took every step to force him to stay in Port Charles. Drew would have left the hospital and left Port Charles within twenty-four hours had Scott not made it impossible. He made sure you were fitted with an ankle monitor after you hit Chase in a bar and delayed your hearing, trying to give us time to get Drew to consent to the procedure. He helped me use my status as your wife to make your medical decisions and have you committed for psychiatric evaluation. He stepped up for Cameron and helped him get through this. He coached him on how to testify about what Dr. Cabot did. He fought to have you declared incompetent so we could force Drew to have the procedure.”

“But you said Drew decided to have the procedure on his own.”

“He did. Eventually. Getting there was a tough road. The judge said Drew was competent. He was going to leave with Kim. Then Scott told him about Jim Harvey. He told Drew that his second chance at a happy life wasn’t more important than your _first_ chance to have a happy life.”

Franco shuddered at the idea of Scotty talking to the other Drew about his past, as odd as it was since the other Drew was him at the time. He wasn’t angry about it. If that’s what had changed Drew’s mind, someone probably should have told him before things got out of control.

“Cameron has been fighting to get you back. He’s kept Jake and Aiden convinced that you were coming back, even when Cam had his own fears and doubts. Our boys missed you so much. Aiden even tried to make friends with the other Drew at the hospital one day.”

Franco pictured little Aiden and smiled. There was no way anyone could resist that little prince of a child, except the other Drew, apparently. “How did Kim get involved in all this? Drew was never interested in Kim as more than a co-parent.”

Elizabeth sighed. “That’s our Drew. The old Drew carried a torch for Kim for years.”

Franco was shocked by that information. “I don’t get it. If he loved her so much, why didn’t he pursue her when she came to Port Charles?” Even as he asked the question, he had a revelation. “Wait… I guess it’s the same reason I didn’t run right into your arms when I had Drew’s memories? Does that make sense? You said I didn’t recognize you.”

“Franco, there was _nothing_ of you in that man that took over your body. He didn’t speak like you or walk like you. He didn’t smile like you. He didn’t have your kindness or humor or talents or interests. He didn’t even like cookies.”

“That’s barbaric,” Franco tried to make a joke despite how overwhelmed he was. “He sounds like a real douchebag.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Yeah. You could say that.”

“He hurt you.” Franco put his arms around Elizabeth and pulled her close to him. He played with the strands of her hair with one hand. “I am so sorry that you were hurt by… him or me. I don’t even know—”

“It was _him_,” Elizabeth answered emphatically. “He used you. Kim used you. They violated your body with their actions. And, yes, it hurt me. I know it hurts you too. It’s okay to say so. We’re both affected by this.”

“Right now, I’m shocked and disgusted. And I’m angry that Kim would betray you. _Why_ would Kim betray _you_? You’ve been such a good friend to her.”

Elizabeth sighed and moved so that she could use eye contact while she spoke. “Kim had some serious issues. I found out that she had drugged Drew—the real Drew—at our wedding reception and attempted to have sex with him because she wanted to have another baby. She’s not innocent. She wasn’t confused. She knew what had happened. She knows you’re my husband. She knew you had been subjected to an experimental procedure that, quite honestly, made you _completely delusional_. Drew and I both told her to stay away from you and to avoid playing into anything you said to her thinking you were the past Drew. She refused to do as we asked. She pursued you. She was going to leave town with you. I had you committed to keep you safe and keep you here.”

“And keep me out of her bed,” he added, sickened by the thought of having sex with that crazy woman who hurt his Elizabeth.

“Yeah.”

He made a gagging face. “How can you even stand to see her at GH?”

“Fortunately, I don’t have to, and neither will you. She left. She said there was nothing left here for her after Drew decided to have the procedure to give you your life back.”

He cupped her face in his hands. She seemed so small compared to him. “Elizabeth, I need you to understand that I would never choose to have sex with another woman. Ever. You’re the only person I ever want to be with. I don’t look at other women that way. I don’t care about them. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no woman on earth who could compete with your kindness, your strength, your passion, your beauty. I want to be worthy of being your husband. I want to protect your heart from ever being broken or bruised again. I am begging you to forgive me for hurting you.”

“Franco,” Elizabeth kissed him. She pulled away. “I don’t blame you for anything Drew said or did. I love you. I adore you. I am so grateful to you for giving up your life to save Cameron. If you hadn’t been there, he might not be with us today. Cameron said that crazy doctor kept telling Shiloh he was too young for the procedure. You begged them to use you instead. I can tell from what he told me about what you said that you pulled out all the stops to sell yourself as the better candidate for the memory mapping. I could not have coped with losing my son.” She paused. “But I couldn’t cope with losing you either. So, no matter who fought me or told me to just let you go, I refused to do that. I wanted you back. I got you back. You’re not allowed to leave me again.”

“You’re not allowed to leave me either. I’m quite smitten with you.” He kissed her, passionately, wanting so much more than just the taste of her lips.

“Would you two stop it already?” Cameron asked playfully as he and Jake came in from their errands.

They broke their kiss. Franco got up and embraced Jake. It hadn’t been that long for him, but it had been a long wait for Jake. “Hey, buddy. Did you miss me?”

Jake squeezed him tightly. “I missed you so much. Is it really you? Are you Franco?”

“All Franco,” he answered. “I hear things were pretty weird around here for a while. I’m sorry about that. For me, it’s like nothing has happened since yesterday. But if there’s anything I missed that’s important, you can talk to me about it. I want to catch up on your life.” He turned to Cameron. “That goes for you too.”

Cameron nodded.

Jake took off his gloves, shoved them in his coat pocket and took it off too. Cameron grabbed it before he had a chance to throw it on the chair and hung it up. “There is something,” Jake started. He sounded nervous.

“Is something wrong?”

“Yeah.”

Franco sat next to his wife and patted the couch. “Tell us what’s wrong.”

“I broke the window.” He clearly felt guilty. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Is that all?” Franco asked. “Windows can be repaired. I’ll get a new one tomorrow, and it shouldn’t take too much effort to install it. Maybe I’ll hire someone to do all the windows, in fact. It would be nice to have a freshly insulated home, wouldn’t it? We can keep the cold, hard winter out of our warm, happy family.”

“It’s really the wrong time of year to buy windows,” Elizabeth added some practical sensibility to the notion of replacing all the windows.

“They’ll pay for themselves in the saved energy costs.” Franco sounded just like the announcer of a local commercial.

Elizabeth shook her head, laughing at her wonderfully impulsive husband and his grand gestures. “It’s your money, Mr. World Famous Artist.”

“It’s our money Mrs. World Famous Artist,” he reminded her. “If a cracked window is all we have to deal with right now, we should deal with it.”

Elizabeth was perceptive to what he was really saying. “Consider it dealt with.”

—END


End file.
